Bringing Hell

Jerky puppy

I quickly hugged back laughing in relief.
"Hey buds!" Grant called giving one of the other arrivers a bro hug. I pushed the person away from me grinning like an idiot and was met with my best friends face, only slightly scratched up. Shelby was smiling at me as well.
"You guys are alive!" Ethan exclaimed sitting down near the fire pit.
"So are you." I responded kneeling down as well. Everyone gathered around the fire and I took the time to see who had gotten off of Alcatraz.
Ethan, Hanna, Sydney, Shelby, and Sean all sat around the fire smiling and joking about how we tried to rob their camp. Sean had a home-made peg leg, I assumed Sydney had quickly crafted it one night.
"So," I said braking up their happy conversation with a tone of solemness, "anyone wanna explain what happened at that prison?" There was silence from the whole group everyone quietly looking at the charred sticks.
After a long silence Ethan cleared his throats and stood up.
"We were attacked, by another group. When we refused to hand over our rations they began to slice everyone's throats and stomachs." He paused and looked at me, not being able to face him I looked down, the fear in my eyes so prominent I didn't want to get judged. Ethan continued, "Eric was killed rather quickly along with a few others...." I nodded slowly. "We escaped as quickly as we could, soon enough people started changing, turning." That was all he was going to tell, and I knew it.
Another long silence followed, no one wanted to talk about anything.
   "We went to the bridge, stayed there. Hoped you would come by maybe looking for us-" Hanna broke off and grimaced.
   "When you didn't we went back into town and set up camp, the fact that there weren't many zombies bothered us a lot." Sean finished for her. Grant nodded and looked at me.
   "Yea, Kruz was keeping most of them at the military base by shooting a gun." I responded. Ethan looked up hopefully but his face dropped. "It was breached, an idiot decided to make mutant zombies." Everyone awkwardly looked at the ground in silence.
Eventually the sun went down and we ate some food talked a bit more and then rested.

The next morning came too soon and too bright. I stretched before getting up and looking around at all of my sleeping friends. I was happy to have them all here again, I'd missed them. I decided to go for a walk around the area while everyone slept. I was quickly joined by a scrappy looking dog who could probably smell the jerky I had. I was glad for some company this early.
  "You know pup, a lot of people have died." I said sitting down next to the dog. It said nothing in return just wagged its tail happily. "And it seems like we are no closer to the end of this than we were when we started." Still silence from the dog. I reached over and pat its head, the dog wriggled into my lap and curled up quickly. I was smiling at this point. "I hope some people are okay, others that we haven't met yet." The dog yapped a little but it was quiet. "It seems I've only met my friends as well, what about other people out there?" The dog kept wagging its tail. "If my life were a story, it sure would be exciting. Honestly, I'm surprised I'm even alive still." I continued to pet the dog in silence while I waited for my friends to wake up. We had no chance of getting to Alaska anytime soon, so I was gunna suggest making camp somewhere else that wasn't San Fransisco.
By the time everyone had awoken the dog had run off again. After some much needed breakfast and a little chatter I decided to pitch my idea,
"So, we're going back to Alberta right?" Everyone stared at my like I was purple and had four eyes. I waited for an answer.
"Meadow, we just got here!" Shelby responded finally.
"I know! I know! But, san Francisco is big!" A couple of my friends nodded. "And the closer we are to Alaska the better." Hanna's face screwed up into one of confusion.
"Alaska? What's that got to do with us?" Everyone looked at me expectantly. I sighed and rolled my eyes getting a little peeved that no one thought the way I did, the way my mom did.
"If we go to Alaska, sure it'll be cold but it will be too cold for the zombies to survive, they'll get frozen in their tracks and we'll be safe, we can buy a little radio and I'm sure one of us, or one of the natives there will know how to fish!" There was silence while everybody pondered this possibility.
"Fine, we'll start back to Alberta tomorrow." Ethan said. "We can figure things out from there."